Bulk update of metadata

[dc696969]

I have a library with a custom column called Quality - which is used and formatted like the standard Rating column. Both fields are populated - but never both for the same book.

I would like to select all books where Rating is blank (easy enough) and set it equal to Quality.

I will then remove the Quality custom field.

How do I go about setting Rating equal to Quality for the selected books?
Thanks

[theducks]

Originally Posted by dc696969

I have a library with a custom column called Quality - which is used and formatted like the standard Rating column. Both fields are populated - but never both for the same book.

I would like to select all books where Rating is blank (easy enough) and set it equal to Quality.

I will then remove the Quality custom field.

How do I go about setting Rating equal to Quality for the selected books?
Thanks

Bulk Metadata Edit: Search and Replace

[dc696969]

Originally Posted by theducks

Bulk Metadata Edit: Search and Replace

Not sure about that...

When I preselect a few records with Rating set to blank, I then opened Search/replace and found that I could not not specify Rating as a Search field - it does not appear in the drop down list.

I can type in 'quality' in the Replace with field but, of course Calibre does not know where to place it.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by dc696969

Not sure about that...

When I preselect a few records with Rating set to blank, I then opened Search/replace and found that I could not not specify Rating as a Search field - it does not appear in the drop down list.

I can type in 'quality' in the Replace with field but, of course Calibre does not know where to place it.

Use the template (mode) input (top o list)

That should be #quality since it is a custom field

[dc696969]

Thanks for your reply, but this still does not work for me.

It appears that Rating or any derivative of it is available either for inspection or update - neither quality nor #quality are listed as valid destination fields.

Thanks anyway.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by dc696969

Thanks for your reply, but this still does not work for me.

It appears that Rating or any derivative of it is available either for inspection or update - neither quality nor #quality are listed as valid destination fields.

Thanks anyway.

You made the field, what kind is it?
I have a half-dozen custom (value) fields, they all appear on the list using their lookup name

[BookJunkieLI]

Originally Posted by theducks

You made the field, what kind is it?
I have a half-dozen custom (value) fields, they all appear on the list using their lookup name

@theducks: If I'm reading @dc696969's posts right he's not looking for the custom column he made; he's looking for the Rating column that is included as a standard column in Calibre. As far as I can tell that's not available to edit anywhere other than in library view.

@dc696969: Someone else with a better understanding of Calibre's internal structure may have a better way but I suspect the following is the best method for doing what you're looking for. Make sure both Rating and your custom column Quality are marked as visible in the library view and that they appear next to each other. In the search box enter

rating: false

This should limit your view to just the books without a rating entry. You can then go through and manually copy over the data from Quality to Rating. It's not fun and may take awhile depending on how many entries need to copied but it's the only surefire method that I know of.

You will not be able to change the name of the Rating column. None of the standard columns included with Calibre can be changed like that.

Hope that helped.

Edited to add: Not sure why I didn't find it before but Rating does appear on the Edit Metadata screen. If you have Preferences=>Behavior=>Edit Metadata single layout set to All In One Tab you can then individually manually copy over the data from your Quality column to Rating. Again, still no way that I can see to do it in bulk.

[theducks]

He is needing to use Search and replace to merge/copy fields, one of which is custom

[chaley]

Rating-type columns cannot be changed with bulk edit S&R. However, since there are only 6 possible values, one can do it in 6 bulk edits. Search for rating:false and #quality:0, then select all and use bulk edit to set rating to 0. Repeat with rating:false and #quality:1. Etc. Should take less than a minute to do all 6 values.

[dc696969]

Thanks Chaley -
- For confirming that rating type fields cannot be updated by S&R.
- For the simple solution. Yes, it's a few steps, but it will work very well for me.
Thanks